1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information collection/management system, an information collection/management apparatus, a terminal device for use in such a system, a storage medium in which collected information is stored, a method for allowing collected information to be viewed, a program for realizing or executing such a system, apparatus, device, or method, and a storage medium in which such a program is stored.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, collection and use of information are important in businesses of companies or the like. In fact, there are many instances in which acquisition of important information has brought about success in businesses.
Of various sources/channels through which companies obtain information, sales persons having direct contact with end users and shops can provide particularly important information. There is a high possibility that sales persons working at various sales offices located over the whole country can obtain newest information from markets through everyday sales activities. In many cases, information obtained by sales persons and provided to other company members is very important.
Making full use of such important information can bring great profits to companies. However, if information obtained by sales persons is not effectively distributed among other company members, important information is kept by individual sales persons or in limited small number of company members without being used effectively. In a case in which information is transferred only by means of oral reports directly or via telephone without being written in documents, it is difficult to develop or reuse the information.
Thus, it is needed to establish a system/method for providing information in a manner that allows the information to be further developed or reused.
To establish such a system for providing information in a developable/reusable manner, it is known to use e-mails, file servers, and a combination of a Web server and Web browsers.
E-mails allow push-type one-to-one or one-to-many information transmission. Providing of information using e-mails is advantageous in capability of two-way communications, easiness in use, and high popularity.
The file server is a server for providing a file in accordance with the FTP protocol. The file server includes directories or folders assigned to respective organizations/institutions, purposes, and categories of information, and a great number of various kinds of large-size electronic files are stored in the corresponding directories or folders such that many users (company members) can freely access the file server to obtain necessary files and thus can share the information.
A combination of a Web server and Web browsers is advantageous in that the system can be properly configured or modified depending on the purpose and in that various types of data such as text data and image data can be dealt with and files can be downloaded. This is important in particular for use in pull-type information transmission. In general, browsers are distributed without charge, and thus it is easy to establish a system using a combination of a Web server and Web browsers.
However, the information providing system according to the conventional technique has problems as described below.
In a case in which information is distributed using e-mails, keywords used to categorize information are limited to titles, the degree of importance, or the like, and information cannot be properly classified into as many categories as needed to reuse or retrieve information.
When information which has been already transmitted is updated or modified, receivers have to re-receive the updated information and replace the current information with the updated information received. This makes it difficult to fully distribute updated information. Another problem is the upper limit on the size of an attached file, which makes it necessary to a large-size file to be divided into a plurality of parts.
In a case in which acquired information is reported via e-mails, although the information is shared by particular individuals, the information is not effectively reused by a large number of persons. Besides, there is even a possibility that an e-mail is not opened by a receiver and information transmitted via the e-mail is not used at all.
In the case of file servers, interfaces are not user-friendly compared with Web browsers, and retrieval is performed by using a function provided by an OS (Operating System) or application software. This is inconvenient for users (company members), and thus many users are reluctant to use file servers. Even in the case in which most reports are presented using electronic files, if some reports are presented in the form of printed documents or presented by attaching files to mails addressed to particular individuals, information is shared only within a limited range.
In the case of the combination of a Web server and Web browsers, transmission of information is generally possible only in one direction, and two-way transmission among users is not possible. Besides, to transmit information, an information sender must have knowledge how to produce an HTML document. This makes it difficult for all company members to use such a system. Furthermore, in this system using the combination of the Web server and Web browsers, because information transmission is performed in the pull-type manner for users, a special job is needed to be performed by users to obtain necessary information and to share information among users.
Even in a case in which information is distributed and stored using e-mails and electronic files, if different systems such as a file server, e-mails, and a combination of a Web server and Web browsers are used in the same company, these different systems cannot be managed in a systematic manner. In such a case, information is stored in a simple manner, and a troublesome and time-consuming job is needed to classify or analyze information.